Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-08-17
DOWN TO DEATH.
,.r.,ple A.htabula Tragedy OF Bit
r5s Tei h.r Night Eleven Years Ago.

1bs fH ,ber Night Eleven Years Ago.
nr ps' Cincinnati Enquirer.
.,r railway accident in the annals
TIE ~ a,ntry which affords anything like
st'e IoT TO Wednesday nights shocking
sf'E''.' a. Chatsworth, H.. was the
a: ...s5I,, ohio, horror of the night of
A;i:'ySI..- %. 1876. I. was a bitterly
laa,rstering winter night. Train No.
I'D - T.ts shore and Michigan South
+: o ~ known as the Pacific express,
III hiring slong through cold lake
81, md driving snow drifts from But
W.. 1 T4lsytland. The train, which con-
81, = ~ eleven coaches, was
:!::'l 70 heavy snow drifts,
CFl. ~ulled by two en-
5e.,2 There we're about l7j passengers
g.le', .-.in. 1t wss during the holiday
o. &c and many of TIE passengers were
:ss;0p., r w.v to spend the approaching
@, '1' vssr's day reunited with friends,
~: .,.;ras or loved ones. Alas, Tor most
~ a. Messengers on
9! ~ TIE Ill FATED TRAIN
IT reunion never came. dim
-. o' NE scene, if you can," said the
ss.lS IS graphic speci8l dispatcher,
.-t-. 40 snot on the day following. ga
t:2-l Gin. Inter night. Close upon the shores
,s'A 1 ". Erie, il gale from the
:. .-.tssst driving before it a blind
-..'L sroT-storm, which has already
= -.-..,9ed great snowdrifts across every
cav and in every fence corner and
!-'",j tbe railroad track to the depth of
80 .,y feet in msly places. The Pacific
IS IS +-sin. due 81 Ashtabula at 5:l5
-; !. nearly three hours late, and
.-2 nlungipg across tie railroad bridge
-. -, hy two massive engines. Below
t-igitfQl chssm, some sixty feet in
- and directly below the span Of lj5
-'s' ~ length is the river bed, thickly in
- IN ice. Such was the scene
-,,sT PREVIOUS TO THE DISASTER,
-..,5 will make the name of Ashtabuls
49, --.olicsI OF ell that is horrible. The
most locomotive had Just fairly passed
=. middle spaE when its engineer, Nc
-r;-s saws he heard strange voice be.
..-4 MIN, and almost instinctively ne
---.,g to the lever end gave the engine g
l.a lad Of steam, 10 which she quickly
..- -, and bounded forward with
IN force as TO break her coupling with
- second engine, and reached terre
Una INST as the second locomotive, to-
-s.5sr with the whole train and the
.-iige. plunged into the black abyss be-
6T[ No one could do justice to the
SCENE OF HORROR
-,,o5 followed in the bed of the river be-
,er5. Many of the cars threw COM
Lotto somersault in their descent, and
zs-s shiyered to atoms. The heavy
.-71-work Of the bridge, with ties, rails,
s--wheels, detsched blocks of ice and
sfz.ered cars heaped together in ont
ss.s-cgenous mass, formed one of the
most swful funeral piles that it was ever
Ne ,otj of mortal eyes to gaze upon
within the space Of ten minutes, before
assistance could be obtained, the fame:
nd started out on their deadly mission,
united with the icy currents below, tC
g..n every possible victim. A fire elaru
SION brought throDg of ready hands tC
.sr3er all the assistance in their power.
4. the flames rapidly approached the
.yes snd screams of the manned and
,.,o,ess men, women and children were
1.9..-renGng Many had become fastened
,..veen the solintered timber5 so as TO bt
--.5.e to extricate themselves, and were
ENwRAPPED BY THE TLAIES
s1.sln view of the men who were work
II, doing their best TO save some othe
sufferer. Witt the sid Of axes and ropes
some sixty-1ye or seventy persons were
AIKEN out Of the wreck alive and carried
On sretcheTs to me houses and hotels il
lie vicinity which were freely thrown
open. In the attempt to escape nen.
c;swed through the car windows only L
Ind themselves in the midst of an ic,
sEesm and l=rge number wer
..1Tned. That any should have
escaped alive from the frightfu
..ulge seemed almost miraculous.
One hundred lives went out in the ter
:1.e death leap of the Pacific express OIL
Is. bitter winter night. The bridge tn
swing Wsy CT which caused the horror
7is Howe truss, built entirely of iron
i21 about eleven years old. 1t was sixty
line feet above the river, and had a
a.C1 LOU leet long IN the clear, the WnoI
s1gth Of the bridge being l57 feet. |
YES built in the Cleveland shops, and ha
sen tested with six locomotives. Th
generally accepted theory was that the
GIVING WAY OF THE BRIDGE
T2S the result OF the contraction OF tn
12a caused by the intensely cold wealth
= a great hue and cry was raised q
De time Of the disaster that the railroa
e1c.als were culpsble, as the bridge hs
l5e2 in an unsafe condition for som
line. Whether this was false or true
-e accusation made such deep impre;
>ol on the sensitive nature of Charlie
.e-,1S, the caiet engineer of the road
IS; be shortly sfterwsrd cCmmitte
,'Clde, the rash act being directly al
@2uiAo-e TO the charges of crimint
sts.eSsness laid at his door. Euginee
.a..aS death by his own hand was I'll
.ASs 1.OCGV act IN tho terri lp shta huI